0:00

so I have a lot of patients that come to me not as mental health clients um

0:05

usually coming for some type of pain or some dysfunction in digestion or or

0:10

sleep or something like that and then we figure it out that there's a mental aspect or emotional

0:20

[Music]

0:28

aspect hi there good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you are in the world this is the first ever

0:34

official episode of the true hope Canada podcast my name is Simon and I'm going to be your host this podcast is brand

0:41

new to everybody here at true hope and we want to begin a um discussion using

0:46

the using different therapies for the treatment healing and prevention of mental health conditions obviously a

0:52

huge topic but here at true hope it's something that we are viciously committed to if you're unfamiliar with

0:58

true hope Canada we are a mind and body based supplement company that is very much dedicated first and foremost to

1:04

promoting brain and body Health through non-invasive nutritional means and if you want some more information about us

1:11

you can go and check out our website which is justr hopec canada.com and you can find us on all the usuals Facebook

1:16

Instagram Twitter and more recently on parlor mewe and Rumble um you can just

1:21

search R true hope Canada but enough of that today we've got the wonderful company of lacy brand and Lacy is a

1:28

registered acupuncturist um and graduate with the diploma of acupuncture program at Pacific Rim

1:33

college she lives and practices in Victoria BC and today we're going to be discussing the application of

1:39

acupuncture when it comes to mental health so first of all Lacy welcome I want to thank you for taking the time um

1:46

to be with us today I'm sure right now is really really busy your whole industry so um thanks for being here

1:53

welcome how are you I'm good how are you thank you so much for having me here no it's it's an absolute pleasure to have

1:58

you and the first ever true hope podcast what an honor no pressure no

2:04

pressure so yeah um why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your

2:10

journey into acupuncture because I think whether you're a a nutritionist or an N

2:15

or a herbalist everyone's got a really interesting personal story when it comes to kind of finding the calling for using

2:22

some sort of healing mechanism for people so please sh share a little bit about yourself all right well it's been

2:29

a long journey journey of life um I originally had a different career path

2:35

in mind um but I experienced some challenges um and changes of Mind early

2:41

in my post-secondary uh career so I studied to be a physiotherapy assistant

2:48

and then I wanted to be a physiotherapist throughout that um I started working in hospitals and seeing

2:55

a lot of patients in extreme states of pain and in

3:00

lifechanging situations um I was like conditioned at that time to really just look at the

3:07

physical body um but a lot of the time I would find myself you know comforting a

3:13

patient talking about the bigger life picture of what it's going to be after

3:18

you know a motor vehicle accident or a stroke or brain injury and the emotions

3:24

and stress that came with that and then kind of getting in trouble for spending

3:30

that extra time and kind of going outside of the scope of what we were trained to do what we were expected to

3:37

do and setting expectations that were probably not going to be met by other people in the profession okay so that

3:45

didn't sit well with me um by the time I finished my undergrad which I took at

3:50

University of Calgary um studying Community rehab and disability

3:56

studies I had learned about the psychosocial model of care versus just

4:01

the bio and it just kind of un unraveled

4:08

this different want in me to treat the body the mind and the whole person

4:16

regardless of how that was and I didn't know what where I was going with that yeah that's a pretty big thing to

4:22

realize yeah and then where do you yeah where do you how do you pull that together into a into a path yeah and and

4:29

through throughout that journey I was experiencing large amounts of pain myself um physically mentally I had a

4:37

lot of digestive issues and I would go to the hospital as a patient myself and they'd tell me to go away that I was

4:43

crazy and I needed to eat more fiber um class which was awesome um eventually

4:50

with the stress of you know an existential crisis of I don't know what I want to do with my life traveling a

4:57

breakup all the things that could happen um The Perfect Storm led to the biggest

5:03

flare I've had of Crohn's Disease which is inflammatory bowel disease um which

5:10

led me to be an impatient in the hospital have surgery be on

5:16

immunosuppressants um and just really kind of rock bottom uh decided I needed to start

5:25

living life for myself um deal with all the emotional stuff was carrying around

5:30

and repressing which was causing physical pain in my

5:35

body and then yeah okay and then that led me to you know seeking out

5:42

alternatives to what I was being told to do I was 22 at the time um had been

5:49

threatened to have an ostomy begag for the rest of my life um and was on

5:55

immunosuppressant and having to check my blood count constantly to ensure that I wasn't going to be infected um by

6:03

anything I could pick up all right um with my immune system that suppressed just to keep me healthy um quote unquote

6:11

healthy sure um so I looked into acupuncture and and herbs and I

6:17

attended um Regular appointments at a school in Calgary at at the point at

6:23

that time I was living in Calgary and I went twice a week I committed to a treatment program I work worked with my

6:29

medical doctor as well weaned off the medication and got my quality of life back I was no longer feeling like a

6:36

zombie I was in more control of my digestion and said symptoms that come

6:42

along with that and then just from experiencing that treatment and what we

6:48

talked about in those treatments I was like whoa maybe this all happened for a reason I don't know acupuncture is

6:55

really cool I'm going to study that now that's a way I can you know ask people about their emotional experience their

7:01

physical pain and incorporate that into a treatment Zas on my body cool and then

7:07

I move to Victoria to stud it how just fast forwarding like how does going through that experience and then you

7:13

know being at a point where you're looking a surgery a life of drugs and

7:19

then you find this alternative therapy complimentary therapy and this helps you

7:25

significantly how does that whole experience help you when you're you know

7:30

dealing with somebody who is dealing with I know anything pathological when

7:35

they come and see you like having that your own personal experience with it I think it increased my capacity for

7:43

empathy I I can relate to a lot of pain that people have been in um inflammatory

7:49

bowel disease affects not only your your digestive system but it affects every

7:55

other system in your body um and your mental health Heth like the gut brain

8:01

access as you know being a nutritional supplement in a company and a nutritionist yourself um they're so

8:08

related and I would always be at large depths of depression or anxiety when I

8:14

went through a flare so it was it's interesting you know seeing

8:20

that in clients and being able to point that out to them and then we can work from both sides yeah and I'm and I'm

8:26

sure your clients because you do have that that that empathy and that connection that authenticity of having

8:32

experiences yourself that only you know makes that therapeutic bond between the

8:38

two of you that much stronger and it allows that person to kind of give in a little bit to you the treatment and the

8:45

process and the healing that goes along with that yeah for sure cool so okay so

8:51

you're you're in Acupuncture school you you moved to you moved to Vancouver isand to do that to PRC a school that

8:58

I'm very familiar with as well pacific room college and um you study there tell us a little bit about your experience at

9:05

school studying traditional Chinese medicine is is wild it's like it's

9:11

learning a new language literally we took medical Mandarin um it was so interesting to kind of

9:20

find these answers for what I had experienced what other people are experiencing and and put it all together

9:28

it was really hard yeah um I think the dropout rate for the first year of acupuncture programs is pretty high um

9:35

just because it's sorry um it's like learning A system that is so foreign

9:41

from what we focus on in the Western World um thankfully that's changing and

9:50

and the popularity of it is increasing and and the acceptance of it

9:55

is just way more common these days especially in Victoria made it a lot easier studying here I'm

10:01

sure well you're stepping into you're stepping into an educational modality that is thousands

10:08

of years old that has been through you know so many different just been through so much time

10:16

and to basically step into a classroom and begin I mean where do you even begin to grasp grasp something that's like so

10:23

ancient so old um I think it's I think it's truly incredible that like like you

10:29

know I mean I studied nutrition at the same school the the TCM lot were a different different breed in a really

10:36

really really good way because um I always found the learning of acupuncture and TCM to be like really really

10:44

overwhelming but again like you had that experience yourself with the actual practice which only going to motivate

10:50

you to investigate that beautiful mystery between you know this

10:56

the the balance between the science and the mystical it's really fascinating um okay so why

11:02

don't we educate ourselves a little bit about what acupuncture is I think everybody um is familiar with the fact

11:10

that it's needles going into your body um I've had a lot of personal experience of acupunctur and wonderful experiences

11:18

and especially here in Victoria but why would you kind of can you take us through a little bit about what

11:24

acupuncture is I know that you know the fact that it's incredibly welcomed in the

11:30

scientific Community now and there's so much research you can go through PubMed and there's so so many so much science

11:36

and research done on the use of acupuncture for in many many different things literally everything um so there

11:43

you know it's not this mystical fairy energy thing it's real it's physical you

11:50

know and it's in it's yeah it's a it's a really powerful thing so maybe you could just like explain to us a little bit in your own words what is

11:57

acupuncture yeah um acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine practice of

12:03

regulating the body into a state of balance or homeostasis as we know it on the western side of the world um by

12:11

inserting small needles into specific points in the body these points are picked strategically by a registered

12:17

acupuncturist traditional Chinese medicine practi practitioner sorry or a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine

12:24

it is important to on to reach out for to per regulated professionals um

12:31

practicing this that's obviously incredibly important yeah yeah um so

12:36

these professionals whether it's a registered acupuncturist or a tcmp um choose the specific points that

12:44

are unique for that person's um for that person based on their personal medical history their

12:52

physical presentation so we look at the tongue to kind of give us a picture of what's going inside of the going on

12:59

inside of the body and we also feel the pulse on each wrist the radial pulse for

13:04

different qualities related to different systems and then we compare them to each

13:11

other to see if there's states of excess or deficiency what's really out of balance and then we match it up with

13:17

what the person is telling us about their experience about their emotional state about their stress about their

13:23

pain where is their pain what channel um we learn about Anatomy uh in physiologic

13:31

uh physiologic sorry physiological physiology oh physiology okay yeah okay

13:37

um but then we also look at we add a lens of traditional Chinese medicine and

13:43

look at fascial channels of acupuncture points and we look for blockages we look

13:48

at the organs um and how they relate to each other not just the the function of

13:54

one organ um because that it's the sum of all the organs and all the parts of

14:00

the body that create the health of the body so that's that's really cool and

14:05

obviously you you know you're um discussing with the client they fill up some sort of intake form to you know

14:11

kind of figure out yeah you know to get some stuff on paper so you can get a little bit of a story about what's been

14:16

going on for them and get some specifics on that but can you tell us a little bit more about the tongue and pulse

14:23

diagnosis CU I think that's really interesting as well yeah so right now

14:28

during Co um we're kind of going without the tongue unless we're able to makes sense

14:33

to physically distance while somebody flashes their tongue CU masks are mandatory for treatments um but in in

14:41

normal days um we would look for different colors in the tongue to

14:46

represent different you know states of heat or blood um you can kind of sense

14:53

if somebody's anemic based on their symptoms and then looking at their tongue looking for a pale tongue tongue

15:00

um you can see teeth marks on the side of the tongue if a tongue is swollen and and thicker than normal where then to

15:07

ask about water metabolism how's your bladder how's your kidney how's your everything regulating inside um

15:15

different coats of the tongue of course mean different things to us and then

15:20

skipping over to the pulse you we're yeah we're looking at the rate of pulse

15:26

um but we're also pushing to different levels um there's different organs

15:32

represented on different sides of the body and looking for qualities of you

15:38

know someone who super stressed you can feel this wiry bounding tension in like almost like a headache

15:45

in the pulse wow um so it just kind of leads us you can even press the point

15:50

and feel a difference in the pulse sometimes it's it's pretty amazing so a combination of looking at somebody's

15:57

tongue and when you said excess would would that is that the kind of like redness and swelling that you that

16:02

you're talking about yeah if you look at somebody who's in an acute state of pain or acute flare up of any condition and

16:10

there's like redness swelling inflammation you're you're seeing an excess state in a person excess pain um

16:18

so you can typically feel that in the in the pulse you know the nervous system is

16:23

in a reactive fight ORF flight state that increases the heart rate increases blood flow and and different things so

16:29

you can feel it in the pulse wow cool that's so you before you've even put a

16:35

needle in you've obviously doing a lot of work when it comes to figuring out what I mean there's so many points yeah

16:42

and know what you want to work with um so yeah a lot of Investigation goes in before you start even start the

16:50

acupuncture process oh yeah I think people who have never experienced acupuncture come for their first session

16:56

and we threw a lot of questions at you um I mean different people practice differently I know in community settings

17:03

it's harder to ask a lot of questions and um and but privately is how I

17:10

practice one person in a room my full attention on them um yeah I get a lot of

17:15

weird looks asking a lot of questions when it comes to like bowel movements or

17:21

or Women's Health and things like that but it's all why you want to look at my tongue it's all important parts of the

17:26

picture that you know we can do n invasively yeah I think that's really cool and um I think when you're um

17:35

working with an acupuncturist and you start developing a relationship there and you you know you're going for more than like one or two visits obviously

17:42

you somebody goes to an acupun because they have something going on for them

17:48

that's probably taken years if not maybe decades so you know you shouldn't expect

17:54

that you know going to one acupuncture treatment is going to you know fix 10 years of digestive problems 100% it's

18:03

like the biggest thing we have to preach and and setting people up for a

18:09

very uh strict the wrong word but a regular treatment program that has you

18:16

know frequent uh concentrated treatments at the beginning usually to get the body

18:23

just nudging it towards that state of homeostasis and then once we get there treatments can be spaced out

18:29

um but yeah typically weekly bi-weekly treatments at the beginning are the way

18:35

to make acupuncture effective and a lot of people you know for some reason come

18:41

thinking it's a miracle Cur all it's like mystici and everything like that but but no it's something like like

18:48

every other modality in health you know needs to happen regularly for it to work yeah exactly whether it's using herbs or

18:54

nutrition or movement you need to obviously have that that commitment to to that that practice and working with

19:00

somebody who is registered and qualified and that you actually find yourself connecting with um yeah you'll be

19:08

beginning to commit to your own healing and yeah staying on that path is obviously very important yeah it's like

19:14

going to the gym and expecting to lose 50 pounds that you've put on over 5 years and yeah and being very

19:20

disappointed when it doesn't happen that first time yeah of course yeah the expectation there is is is important to

19:26

recognize um so how does AC puncher relate to the nervous system and mental

19:33

health obviously here at true hope you know it's a massive Focus for us and we want to with this know first session we

19:40

want to start speaking to different practitioners about that connection between what they do and the nervous

19:46

system and mental health so do you think you can answer that question yeah okay great um so

19:53

acupuncture like I just touched on we we asked questions about all

19:59

um facets of Health um and by figuring out what's going on

20:07

in a person's body um we can we can treat everything as a

20:14

whole system so I have a lot of patients that come to me not as mental health clients um usually coming for some type

20:22

of pain or some dysfunction in digestion or or sleep or something like that and

20:27

then we figure it out that there's a mental aspect or emotional aspect um even as far as you know asking somebody

20:35

oh this pain started a year ago what happened a year ago in your life was there an increase in stress was there a

20:42

a death a grief like a big emotion that perhaps you were pushed into the

20:48

busyness of life and and you hunkered down and you were really strong uh but

20:54

you didn't process that um so we're we're really good we're taught to pick

21:00

up patterns too so there's different ways there's like kind of types of

21:06

people we call them constitutions um in some schools of acupuncture you learn

21:11

about five elements you learn about that you know like an earth Constitution a fire Constitution you learn about

21:18

personalities and then Tendencies of people as well yeah um so we can we can

21:23

identify those patterns and then use our our tools of acupuncture breathing

21:29

meditation food therapy um I refer out to herbs because I didn't study herbs um

21:35

to to regulate the whole body and that involves emotions and mental health but

21:42

specifically acupuncture uh stimulating specific points uh works with the central nervous

21:50

system to release endorphins and increase the body's regular uh natural

21:56

painkillers um so a lot of people with chronic pain like their mood their stress affects those States sure of of

22:05

mental health um the sematic expressions of anxiety or depression you know

22:11

heaviness in the body palpitations digest digestion issues

22:17

sorry um we can treat by regulating the nervous system stimulating parts of the

22:23

brain that release you know neurotransmitters like serotonin um and then also work with the

22:30

digestion or work with you know the shoulder injury that is holding somebody

22:35

back from participating in their regular exercise um which is leading to them

22:41

feeling down them not being able to exercise and release endorphins physically themselves um and get them

22:49

back it's I love acupuncture it's really cool I can see it in your face when

22:54

you're talking about it yeah you obviously got a clear passion for it and is it's you know it's anything that's

23:00

got 3 four 5,000 years of History to it that definitely deserves deserves that

23:06

type of attention um I've got a question for you how much um how much does the

23:11

application of acupuncture have to do with helping helping um the

23:18

body oh how do I word this helping your um helping yourself kind of get out the

23:23

way for your body to kind of do its thing and fix it up because obviously your body's got the ability to to heal

23:29

MH and it's got the ability to manufacture an arsenal of chemicals to

23:35

know to to heal heal make you feel good make you feel bad you know like your body can do all the kinds of things so

23:40

the ACT actual just think of just like the application of a needle whether

23:45

that's opening up flow or um getting rid of a blockage of some kind to help the

23:52

body heal itself like what do you think about that

23:59

I I think I'm understanding your question okay um I might kind of segue

24:04

and maybe Define what they call Chi in traditional Tides medicine and and kind of go from there um so Chi um has been

24:13

referred to as vital energy life force um I like to think of it as more of

24:21

potential so it's the energy that kind of animates us as living beings um in

24:27

Western we can say it's like ATP in a Cell okay um but yeah it's our potential

24:34

when we're deficient in shei you're you know dragging yourself through life your

24:41

mood's probably going to be low and just that Vitality isn't there MH um in

24:48

Chinese medicine we'd say she has the jobs of warming our body circulating

24:54

things keeping things in flow um defending our body from external forces

25:01

whether that is you know somebody's mood when they come in the room and right and

25:06

you're sensitive to it or even pathogens viruses um so CH is potential in my

25:15

terms so how does the body heal itself and how does acupuncture help it was

25:22

that your question yeah I think that I think you certainly answered it and I think the thing that was missing from my rant was was the word she

25:28

right obviously our body's always trying to um create homeostasis in a quite Dynamic environment and it needs you

25:36

know it needs that level of chi or energy whatever that is in order to do it and then there are things in our

25:41

external world that cause us to be deficient or weak or low or whatever that is but I believe that our body is

25:49

always trying to reach an optimal level of health and yeah there's things like acupuncture and other things that we can

25:55

do that can help uh help us help us help

26:00

our body get to get to that yeah I I totally agree and I think that

26:05

acupuncture is good for doing that because it like I think our

26:11

modernday problem is being really busy really over stimulated we're staring at

26:17

screens all the time I'm guilty of it as well I'm not perfect I I'm so human um

26:24

but when we're in a state where we're paying attention just so much the time feeling this pressure to perform all the

26:31

time we just can't expect our our energy to have that much potential 24/7 so

26:38

that's why you see if you go on Instagram or anything like acupuncturist are like rest we want you to rest we

26:47

don't want you to be lazy we want you to have unstructured un pressured time to

26:55

just allow your tissues your cells your brain to just be itself without any

27:02

stimulus um and acupuncture sessions are great physiologically with the changes

27:08

we can make inserting points into specific um Point um yeah points

27:15

prescriptions to to create that in the body but it's also wonderful because we

27:20

leave you without your phone and in a dark yeah dimly lit we

27:27

create an Ambiance and a comfortable place for you to rest and we take we

27:33

have your phone away on silent we leave you alone we might come in and stimulate

27:38

the points a little bit but generally we're trying to have a very neutral environment for you to just be and yeah

27:46

that's one of the best things I found about especially going to Community Acupuncture in like you know one of those beautiful lazy boy type of chairs

27:53

that you know being you know being being a busy person and being thinking busy as

27:58

well all of the time but actually being somewhat a little bit like self self forced to sit down and actually take

28:05

that time to you know honor myself to actually like rest whenever I did like you know sit up in that set up in that

28:11

chair and get some needles and like bring that like attention in W I would have the best like 45 minute nap of my

28:19

life every time guaranteed no problem because as you say yeah you don't have you you're taking so much of that

28:26

external let's say unnatural stimul away and you're able to put your body in a

28:31

position where it can be like oh okay finally he's turned the computer off he's put the phone away and he's in he's

28:38

in a space here that I can really work with and then your body's just like goes to town and for me it was like my eyes

28:44

would just shut and beat and I would just wake up feeling like completely restored like I'd had like a 9h hour

28:50

uninterrupted sleep and it was pretty profound the first time that happened for me yeah I remember seeing you

28:56

snoring in one of the clinics great aome um yeah it's it's we call it the ACU

29:02

Zone too that happens when the needles go in and these endorphins are released is I I describe to my clients or

29:09

patients that come in that you know there is an expectation for you to feel relaxed sometimes that doesn't happen

29:15

because people are so weirded out having noodles in them for the first time

29:20

um segway needles are not supposed to be painful they're very small and they're

29:26

not to be afraid of um but yeah once they're in people generally feel sleepy they have a nap or

29:33

feel displaced between sleep and wake um some even describe it as mild

29:39

Euphoria um like a meditative State I also if I find somebody's really wound

29:45

up or experiencing a lot of anxiety or a pattern that's really blocking them I

29:52

will play guided meditations for them just as an added level of relaxation to treatment or prescribe them to listen to

30:00

them at home um yeah acupuncture is so relaxing yeah it seriously is I remember

30:06

the first time I ever had a needle in was in my first year of nutrition school at PLC and one of my

30:13

um one of my clinics was was helded by a nutritionist and also an acupuncturist and we didn't have anyone in clinic that

30:19

day and I happened to mentioned i' never had acupuncture before and to say that at Pacific room college is quite weird

30:27

um so I sat down and um we turned the lights down a little bit and I got really comfortable and um this name is

30:35

Jennifer Jennifer put this one needle in the top of my head and um I was I was a little bit

30:41

freaked out by it but I completely trusted her so it was fine then the needle was small as you say and they go

30:47

you don't feel any pain anyway she put this needle in right at the top of top of my head and I felt this light like

30:54

slow lightning tripling down like from the top of my head from the needle point down down my head and I think it was

31:01

only in for about 20 minutes and then afterwards I felt kind of I felt really

31:07

relaxed and apparently when I came back in on the Monday afterwards apparently I was like a little bit like a bit like I

31:14

don't know don't know what that noise was um but I went home at

31:19

6:30 and slept for 14 hours yeah I've never done that before in my life it was it was ridiculous

31:25

and yeah I didn't really know what how to to take that but I clearly needed that rest it was end of end of a semester and I'd come come from the come

31:33

from the UK and i' basically what I translated it was that I never really

31:38

took the time to transition from living in one part of the world to the other part of the world and the you know the

31:45

internal stress of that happens and basically that was the my body just like took the time there to recover in that

31:53

14-hour period and yeah it was wild yeah your body's just decompressing after a

31:58

whole semester and a move and everything yeah pretty crazy um when it

32:03

comes to using acupuncture as a mental health therapy do you um use or

32:09

recommend any other like complimentary modalities to people yes um I believe in

32:17

the the power of teamwork and and supporting an individual and um

32:22

especially in you know Mental Health crisis um I I strongly recommend my

32:29

clients that are having um extreme states of imbalance with mental health

32:35

to be supported by some type of mental health professional whether that's you know a psychotherapist a counselor doing

32:42

some type of therapy whether that's talk therapy traditionally or EMDR cognitive

32:49

behavioral therapy just getting to know what the root cause of of this

32:54

dysfunction is so that it doesn't have to be a permanent thing or it's something that you know you have tools

33:03

of All Sorts to deal with um I I will do some breath work um like

33:10

some box breathing just very accessible not like wild Kundalini things sure um

33:17

within the treatment just even to start the treatment off to get the person settled into the room

33:23

um you know people are on different supplements or medications and I have no judgment within my room what people are

33:30

using to keep themselves healthy um yeah

33:35

yes even having to do like Crisis plans with with some people who are in extreme

33:41

states of distress of you know if they're having suicidal thoughts or ideations I'll

33:48

listen and we'll come up with a plan of who are you going to call who can you reach out with uh to what are some

33:56

reasons for staying um I don't think many other um registered acupuncturist

34:01

do this I know I'm not a trained mental health professional but it is um

34:06

important to support people and hear them when they're hurting so we also have a duty to report if we think that

34:12

somebody is going to harm themselves or somebody else so yeah I try to create a

34:19

really open confidential space um where people can can really truly share where

34:25

they're at yeah and it's only at that time when when you're really going to get the true authentic response from an

34:31

individual um when you when you've had when you have that kind of relationship and as any practitioner it's important

34:37

to have a really good referral Network and when it comes to mental health there

34:42

is no you know one thing that's going to fix everybody anybody but you know acupuncture could be a really incredible

34:47

pathway into um starting to feel a little bit better and maybe um deciding

34:54

to do something different to be connected you know into into a circle of supportive practitioners and that's a

35:00

big thing when it comes to things like anxiety or depression is the isolation that comes with something like that MH

35:05

and then when you um step into a like an acupuncture program you know you're

35:11

immediately connected with people and then you know you can refer out to other people that can you know be part of that

35:17

healing team because you should never never go into any type of um you know big change alone super important to yeah

35:24

to get support right um just kind of wrapping things up here but um do you have any recommended

35:30

like reading or social media accounts um for more information about acupuncture specifically kind of for people who most

35:38

people have heard of it but like you know but taking the step between like hearing about acupuncture and actually

35:43

like you know booking an appointment um is there anywhere that people can you know get some more

35:49

information yeah for sure um there's a book called the web has no weaver or the

35:57

yeah I think that's that's the name of the book just off the top of my head that's really wonderful and kind of introduces people to the idea of

36:04

acupuncture um there's tons of wonderful professionals on

36:09

Instagram um and on the internet writing blogs about acupuncture and what it can

36:16

do um I can't think of any specific people to come to mind um the books that

36:24

I generally recommend for my clients struggling with you know anxiet or stress or

36:30

um large emotional dysfunction and physical pain um aren't specifically

36:37

about acupuncture but one book that I would recommend everybody to read is uh when the body says no the hidden cost of

36:43

stress by gabber Dr gabber matate um it changed my life I think it also kind of

36:49

led me to acupuncture because it encompassed this whole psychosocial

36:55

biomedical um circle of Health for me um

37:00

yeah that's awesome thank you so much for that um final question I think in regards to um what do you think the

37:08

expectations would be for somebody who's going to have like their first ever acupuncture

37:13

experience good question thanks um so at the expectations of your first

37:19

acupuncture treatment um attention being put on you um a space

37:27

where you're being listened to I think speaking for myself but also the

37:33

wonderful classmates I went to school with or acupuncturists I've worked alongside with in clinics um are all

37:40

very compassionate people who listen without judgment and and

37:45

really just want to get to know the root of what's going on with you um

37:51

so yeah I hope compassion is something you you you um experience in first

37:58

treatment and then you know we usually explain it how we see it acupuncture and

38:05

then yeah the needles are small I a lot of people come to me really afraid of needles yeah um most of us use guide

38:13

tubes that take away the sensation of the insertion uh which really helps with

38:19

reducing any pain that there might be um and then yeah like 45 minutes of rest

38:29

like no pressure on you yeah hopefully a nap it's going to be wonderful yeah no I

38:35

love that that's wonderful and yeah my personal experience I've only had wonderful acupuncture um experiences

38:41

with with many different practitioners and um yeah it's so important to be able to connect with somebody who's going to

38:49

ask you those key questions about yourself and then obviously using the different tools that Chinese medicine

38:56

offers um it can be such an incredible healing uh first start first step into

39:01

your healing Journey um we're going to wrap that up Lacy where can people uh

39:07

get hold of you um either through email or on Instagram uh my Instagram handle

39:14

is at Lacy Brandt acupuncture um you can message me on there or my email is Lacy Brandt

39:20

acupuncture gmail.com I work at a balanced body wellness clinic in

39:26

Victoria BC um close to Cedar Hill Golf Course and I also do home visits through men mobile

39:33

Health um for people who are finding um barriers to treatment U

39:39

whether that's anxiety leaving the house Child Care looking after elderly um we

39:45

safe that's awesome I didn't even know that was a thing like having acupuncher come to your home because so many people especially right now you know wouldn't

39:52

want to leave their house and if you can if you can have acupuncture in the comfort of your own environment like

39:57

this is only going to help the uh help the process yeah totally it's it's something that kind of came out of Co um

40:04

I was noticing that people were hesitant to come back into the clinic I have um

40:10

men mobile health is run by a friend that's a wonderful and talented kinesiologist that was treating a lot of

40:16

people who had been in motor vehicle accidents and you know pain or physical

40:21

limitations were were barriers to them to them coming into treatment or or even anxiety

40:28

driving so um yeah it's wonderful treating people in their homes and most people have Lovely Pets it's great

40:35

that's great well um thanks very much again for coming and talking with us I've certainly learned a lot about

40:41

acupuncture and I think as we go through in this um beginning stages of this podcast through a series of chatting to

40:48

different practitioners and what I find super interesting is the the connected overlay between everything whether it's

40:55

nutrition or herbs or acupuncture um you know most I want to say good

41:00

practitioners are looking at the are looking at the whole body I think good nutritionists and good acupuncturists

41:06

know when um they might need some assistance or some other support from other practitioners um you not not one

41:13

person is going to be able to fix everything for everybody that's not really um a realistic expectation but um

41:19

yeah that's great thank you so much Lacy um yeah that's awesome I really appreciate you coming in today thank you

41:26

any final words um no just thank you so much I'm really

41:31

grateful for the for this experience and for the experience of uh being able to help people awesome well thanks very

41:37

much everybody for listening this has been the first episode of the official true hope Canada podcast um keep an eye

41:44

out for more in the future which is going to be a weekly thing and uh again if you want to connect with true hope

41:49

Canada you can do that by going to our website which is true hopec canada.com and you can find us at all the usual

41:55

social media Outlets thank you so much everybody have a beautiful day

42:03

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